Lemon Grove school locked down; man arrested with pellet gun

LEMON GROVE  A man with a pellet gun was arrested Friday afternoon after he reportedly threatened some Mount Vernon Elementary School students, prompting a two-hour school lockdown there and the monitored release of students at nearby Palm Middle School.

No shots were fired and no one was injured, authorities said.

Most students had left for the day shortly after 2 p.m., but nearly an hour later, students who had been playing in a ball field told school officials a neighbor had just threatened them with a gun, Lemon Grove School District assistant Superintendent Gina Potter said.

The students, possibly three of them, said they knocked a ball over a fence into an adjoining yard and “the neighbor came out of the home with a gun,” Potter said.

She said Principal Gustavo Vazquez put the school in lockdown and called the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies moved into the neighborhood and surrounded the house.

Potter said the school on Mount Vernon Street, remained in lockdown for approximately 85 students in an after-school program and 24 pupils at a preschool on the far side of campus from the ball field.

She said deputies told school officials the suspect was inside his home and not loose on the streets.

The law enforcement activity also affected nearby Palm Middle School on Palm Avenue, where most students were leaving about 3 p.m. Those staying for an after-school program that runs until 6 p.m. were released out a front gate to a parent or guardian, Potter said.